In the course of childbearing, women must endure considerable discomfort and frequently suffer serious physical impairments throughout their pregnancies.
As a fetus develops in a women's womb, it continuously grows in size and weight. As the fetus grows, it displaces certain of the organs that occur within the woman's abdomen, stretches or distends certain muscles and tissues, compresses other muscles and tissues and presents notable added weight that the woman must carry and that materially adversely affects the woman's posture and balance.
The most common and most difficult to correct difficulties experienced by a woman during pregnancy is lower back pain caused by the ever increasing size and weight of the fetus she carries. As the fetus grows, it moves to project forwardly within the woman's abdomen causing an imbalance that the woman must compensate for as by throwing her upper torso back and her lower torso and pelvis forward. Such an adjustment of the woman's posture results in adverse distortion or backward bowing of her spine and in notable changes in the distribution of weight and forces throughout the whole of her body, particularly in and about the pelvic region and lower lumbar region of her back. In addition to the above, the presence of the growing fetus in a woman's abdomen often exerts weight and pressures within the woman's abdomen that interfere with or obstruct the normal operation and function of her body parts. For example, it is not infrequent that the presence of a fetus will exert pressures on nerves, causing pain or discomfort; press on veins and arteries, causing adverse losses of circulation; and, pressure on other organs that results in impaired functioning thereof.
For many years, the most common advice and treatment for a woman who is suffering those adverse effects of childbearing that are briefly noted above has been to "stay off your feet as much as possible" or "bed rest." Both of these directives are intended to unstress and rest the lower back and/or to redirect the bulk and weight of the fetus from down within the woman's pelvic cavity, where it is normally directed when the woman sits or stands upright.
In the recent past, it has been determined that if a pregnant woman bends over and stands on her elbows and knees, with her head down, the weight of and pressures exerted by the fetus she carries are shifted from within her pelvic cavity, relieving the adverse effects otherwise caused thereby. It has been further determined that if this position is assumed for appropriate periods of time the adverse effects otherwise caused by the weight and pressures of the fetus can be notably reduced or eliminated.
It has also been determined that when assuming the above position, if a woman bends her head down and arches her back upwardly those pains and/or the discomfort at or about her lower back can be further notably relieved. The great shortcoming with the above noted "exercise" resides in the fact that it requires the expending of considerable work energy and cannot be continued for a sufficient period of time to attain any long lasting effect.
The prior art provides various wedge-shaped cushions and the like that are intended to be strategically placed in supporting engagement with and about the pregnant woman's body to lift and/or support her body in such a manner as to relieve those discomforts and/or pains that are often experienced during pregnancy. Such special pillows and/or supports have proven to be no more effective than are common pillows shoved and/or stuffed about a pregnant woman's body in a desired and comforting manner.
Yet other efforts to relieve the discomforts and pains associated with pregnancy has been to cut or otherwise form "tummy" or "belly" openings in mattresses and other horizontal body supports on which pregnant women can lie, face down, with their fetus distended lower abdomens or "bellies" depending freely into the openings. While the provision of body supports with belly openings work to relieve the weight and pressure of fetuses within the pelvic cavities of women who use them, they work to, in effect, induce the women's bodies to drop down into and through the openings, causing further backward bending of the women's backs and exacerbating those pains and discomfort that the women experience as a result of the adverse distortion and bending of their backs caused by their pregnancies.